Jake Tapper, a political reporter for ABC News, did a piece yesterday that got some deserved criticism. He wrote, among other things:
I've seen racism in campaigns before -- I've seen it against Obama in this campaign (more from Democrats than Republicans, at this point, I might add) and I've seen it against McCain in South Carolina in 2000, when his adopted Bangladeshi daughter Bridget was alleged, by the charming friends and allies of then-Gov. George W. Bush, to have been a McCain love-child with an African-American woman.
What I have not seen is it come from McCain or his campaign in such a way to merit the language Obama used today.
Pretty inflammatory.
Tapper is right that McCain's people didn't call Obama anything overtly racist. But then, maybe they didn't need to. Maybe someone in McCain's campaign just used their trusty thesaurus.
Let's see what they might have found, after the jump. And we'll see as well, that Jake Tapper, not so long ago, knew better.
Four weeks ago, McCain replaced his campaign manager with Steve Schmidt, a protoge of our old friend, Karl Rove. We've had a few weeks now to see how what Mr.Steve Schmidt brings to party, and now that Barack is back from his trip of last week, that strategy is coming into view.
What Steve Schmidt brings to the party, as I hinted above, is a thesaurus. Old fashion, but tried and true. Because for the classical Rovian strategy of smearing your opponent, and turning his strengths into weakness, Steve Schmidt has a major problem. He can't use his word of choice. His word of choice for a black man who would be president is
UPPITY
Because to play the divisive politics of race, somehow, the McCain campaign must call Barack an uppity negro, without getting caught in the act. They need to bring up the idea that Barack Obama is a black man that does not know "his proper place", who does not understand that true, white Americans will not accept him as their leader, because Barack is
UPPITY
So lacking the "right" to call the black man what the black man is -- or as some people might say, call a spade a spade, Steve Schmidt got his staff to use a thesaurus. Here's what his staff might have found. You can follow along with me by going to an on-line thesarus site; I used http://thesaurus.reference.com.
And here's what you get on that site for
UPPITY
2 results for: uppity
Here's the first result:
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus
Main Entry: impudent
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Rude and disrespectful.
Synonyms: assuming, assumptive, audacious, bold, boldfaced, brash, brazen,
cheeky, contumelious, familiar, forward, impertinent, insolent, malapert,
nervy, overconfident, pert, presuming, presumptuous, pushy,
sassy, saucy, smart
McCain's people can't call Barack uppity. But they can, will, and repeated have called him overconfident, impertinent, and presumptuous. So that people who just know that Barack is uppity have something else more neutral, and inflamatory, to call him.
Karl Rove, though, is a bright student, and almost certain looked at the second result as well:
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus
Main Entry: snobbish
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Characteristic of or resembling a snob.
Synonyms: elitist, snobby
He almost certainly was thinking of exactly this connection when he said a nasty little story a month ago. Here's a sample report of it:
ABC News' Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as "coolly arrogant."
"Even if you never met him, you know this guy," Rove said, per Christianne Klein. "He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."
The byline on this article is none other than Jake Tapper, who added the following in this same June 23 piece:
Interesting that Mr. Rove would use a country club metaphor to describe the first major party African-American presidential candidate, whom I'm sure wouldn't be admitted into many country clubs that members of the Capitol Hill Club frequent.
But the picture Rove paints is interesting. Who, pray tell, is Rove at this country club?
The guy telling funny stories near the band?
The charming president of the club's philanthropic arm?
The brainy guy with all the sports scores?
Or the guy who vandalizes your car and blames it on the kitchen staff?
I'm betting on the last one. Or, perhaps, the guy standing next to the aging, white, former fraternity president who's standing against the wall with his beautiful date, giving everyone sarcastic put-downs for nicknames, who's very loud, and very drunk. You know the guy. Since 2000, we've all known him, very well.
I'm not sure what Jake Tapper knew last month that he forgot in time for yesterday's piece. But I'd guess that it can be summed up in a single word.
Uppity.